GovernmentExecutive.com

Testifying before Congress for the first time as director of the Office of Personnel Management, John Berry described the federal government's personnel systems as Balkanized, incoherent and badly out of date.

"Sometimes, I don't know if my job is like Back to the Future or Groundhog Day," he told the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia on Wednesday, referring to movies in which the protagonists find themselves stuck in a time warp.

Berry told lawmakers he wanted to promote telework, flexible work hours, and a more standardized pay and benefit system, but he gave mixed signals about pay for performance. Performance-based systems could be useful, but "there are some warning lights," he said.

He noted that within-grade pay raises under the General Schedule could be used to reward performance, but conceded that wouldn't be enough at many agencies. The current pay system often results in different salaries among employees doing similar work, he said, noting that fixing those disparities is on his list of priorities.

Berry also took aim at the federal hiring process, saying it worked in "geological time" and needed to be streamlined. "We need a simple way, in plain English, for people to apply for jobs," he said, noting that he also wanted to use internships to attract more workers and to encourage senior employees to become mentors.

But union leaders at the hearing warned that efforts to simplify hiring could undermine attempts at a fair and open process. "There is no doubt the process could be streamlined without sacrificing those values," said Jacqueline Simon, public policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees. But, she said, the lack of well-staffed human resources offices is one reason the federal hiring process has lagged behind the private sector.

Berry blamed the agency for moving slowly on issues such as diversity and pay parity. "Our score would be laughable in a T-ball game," he said about improvements in minority hiring and promotions.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., said the federal retirement system also is in need of updating, noting the current benefit structure gave some employees an incentive to retire early. Berry said he would look at retirement, acknowledging an April 21 Government Accountability Office report outlining deficiencies in the system.

"I think we need to go back to the drawing board," he said, adding OPM's past attempts to modernize the system were too ambitious with too little follow-through. "They were trying to solve everything, and in doing so solved nothing."